No deals in donations, leaders say

Corporate donors who gave to the Liberal and Labor parties were wasting their money if they thought it would buy them special privileges, Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Simon Crean each said yesterday.

Last year, the parties shared more than $100 million in donations and public funding.

But Mr Crean said companies donated money to Labor to keep democracy alive.

"Many of them do it because they believe that there should be strong oppositions in a vibrant democracy," he said on the ABC's Insiders.

Mr Howard yesterday denied again that ethanol magnate Dick Honan had received special treatment.

He said on Channel Ten's Meet the Press that as well as introducing an industry subsidy scheme last year that was advantageous to Mr Honan, the Government had made decisions that were disadvantageous to him, such as setting a maximum level for ethanol in petrol and refusing to set a mandated minimum level.

"Well, anybody who supports the Liberal Party financially can only hope to get one thing, and that is a good government," he said. "They won't get any special favours and I've just illustrated that this particular donor didn't get any special favours."

The ALP last week returned $50,000 that had been given by Mr Honan's company Manildra, claiming he had sought guaranteed access to Mr Crean in return.